My Favorite Films

Before Sunrise and Before Sunset have got to be my two top favorite movies. Surprisingly, I identify more strongly with the latter despite it being the sequel. I first saw them about four years ago. Actually, after seeing Before Sunrise I didn't have any idea that there was a sequel. I remember seeing a movie (I think it was An American Werewolf in Paris) with Julie Delpy and later researching what other movies she was in. I've never been a huge fan of Ethan Hawk or even romance films, but I thought I'd give it shot. I was not disappointed. I think I watched it a few times in a row.

Shortly after seeing the first one, I discovered there was a sequel. It's really quite fascinating, the films were made nine years apart, which corresponds to the time the two characters in the film spend apart. The differences in their appearance also reflect that, which make it that much more believable.

Since then, I've seen quite a few chick flicks and not many have compared. I suppose I'm a bit of a fan of bittersweet endings, so that has something to do with it. Movies such as Lost in Translation and Once come close.

I watched them both again yesterday, one after the other and they are still just as good as when I first saw them. I repeated the last twenty minutes of the sequel several times because they were so precious. Every single strong feeling they had, repressed for nine years, comes spilling out in a single car ride.

*****Warning*****Spoilers*****

I wouldn't call them gripes, but there are a few issues that I wish to expand upon. During the car ride, there's a moment when Celine (Julie Delpy's character) starts shouting and asks the cab driver to pull over. All throughout the movie, after spending about an hour together, she didn't once raise her voice in frustration. What's stranger is that Ethan Hawk's character Jesse didn't actually do much talking leading up to the point where she became so distressed. She basically talked herself into the moment where she almost jumped out of the car and ran away. I suppose I find this odd because I'm not very familiar with mood swings such as these. I could definitely see where she was coming from, but I don't understand her sudden need to repel Jesse after just spending so much time with him in a calm environment. I suppose it all to do with peoples personality and how they deal with strong emotions.

After thinking about it a bit, it makes more sense, but what I didn't quite understand after first seeing it, is why she was so mad. It almost seemed as if she was expressing animosity towards Jesse, when in fact it was her own problem. Jesse was the one who was stood up. He was the one who flew all the way to Paris only to find out she wasn't going to be there. He's the one who should be mad, and yet he's the one being yelled at. All the time leading up to this point, she didn't seem to be all that upset for not meeting him after that six month period. Earlier in the film he even asks her, "oh, why weren't you there" and she responded nonchalantly with "Oh, well my grandmother.."(her grandmother died either that day or shortly thereafter). Of course later in the film she confessed that she had been concealing some things, like the fact that she remembered they had sex. So this might be part of the reason she threw a little tantrum, it was an explosion of pent up feelings.

I just realized that I've spent that last few paragraphs trying to figure out and explain a woman's emotions. And there you have it, the difference between men and women (generalized of course). She did actually care, so much so as to have spend the last nine years of her life regretting what could have happened. She went on and on about how she poured all of her romance into that one night they spent together. Than afterwords became numb and unable to connect again. To me, this was just a long winded way of saying that for those nine years, she hadn't felt for another person what she felt for Jesse that one day.

In a sense, we all have that one person who we compare everyone else to. It may not be your ideal mate, but it is a person in your life you have either dated or befriended who you've identified with on a deeper level than anyone else. It may be a collection of people, a handful, or even just a few. We use this as to gauge new people we encounter. If you're lucky, you'll find someone who goes off the scale. Hell, you're lucky even if someone comes close. This may or may not be true, but from what I know... and from personal experience, we spend an abundant amount of time thinking about this person. Even if you are in a relationship... you might even be somewhat happy with it, but if this person rates even a 9/10 on your mental scale, you can't help but fall victim to the constant flood of thoughts of what could have been, what could be, and if you're willing to repress these thoughts for the sake of your current relationship.